An ESPN report from Baxter Holmes showcases important research from UW-Madison’s David Bell on the potential dangers associated with youth sports specialization.
Bell is a faculty member with the School of Education’s Department of Kinesiology and its athletic training program. Bell also is director of the Wisconsin Injury in Sport Laboratory (WISL). 
In a series of studies in 2017 and 2018, a team of researchers working with Bell found that while most youth athletes today believe specialization increases their performance and chances of making a college team, the majority of those who reached Division I level didn’t classify as highly specialized at the high school level.
While the upsides of specialization are unclear, there are few doubts about the downsides, according to ESPN.
A separate 2016 study from Bell and his team found that 36 percent of high school athletes classified as highly specialized, training in one sport for more than eight months a year. Those athletes were two to three times more likely to suffer a hip or knee injury.
The ESPN article, headlined ” ‘These kids are ticking time bombs’: The threat of youth basketball,” is available here.